[Thermodyne]

Whoa there fella, I don’t recall insulting anyone but Sivran. And that was only do to his original post were he stated that 98 was more secure than 2K/XP. Personally, I think that that type of misinformation should be discredited by the most direct and harshest means available. 9x compromises don’t make the news; so many uninformed people assume that it is safe. Also, the deployed base is not really a high value target these days. With worms getting all the press, it has been forgotten that TSR’s were the favored attack against 9x. And with a TSR, you can achieve the same end result as a worm has on XP.

Most people think that with access they can use a program to reset the administrator account password or that the can boot to another OS and access the file system. This is not true today. It would probably still work on a home system, but not on a secure network. The biggest problem today is biological compromise such as users writing down their username and password on a post it and then sticking it to the monitor or keyboard. This and HIPPA are probably going to force us to move to a biometric form of authentication. Data interception is another area that is vulnerable, that’s why you see wire mesh on the outsides of some government buildings and super sensitive sites have no offices with exterior wall exposure.